When studying a passage of Scripture, we will often ask question like, “Who is the author?” “What is the context?” “When was it written and to whom?” These are good questions to ask. But what do we do about biblical passages where we don’t know much about the author or context? For example, we aren’t completely sure who the human author is for some Psalms, and we don’t have total clarity about the context of a few passages in Scripture. So, can we understand these passages and be edified by them? Yes, and understanding how we should read Scripture helps explain why.
There are four lenses through which we should read Scripture.[1]
The Grammatical Historical Lens
The grammatical historical approach examines the historical context of the passage such as authorship, context, etc.
The Literary Lens
The literary lens examines what the text actually says – what arguments are made, what details are mentioned, what the preceding passage talked about, what specific words are used, etc.
The Reader-Response Lens
The reader-response lens could be described as observations we make of the text as readers. For instance, a medical doctor is likely going to have different observations about the healing of the paralytic who was lowered through a roof in Mark 2 than a structural engineer. If over-emphasized, this lens can lead to a “what does this mean to me?” approach that unhelpfully empties the text of its objective, universal teaching. However, it can be a helpful tool to glean insights. This is why pastors will often ask different church members for their thoughts or questions concerning a passage they are about to preach.
The Divine Authorship Lens
The divine authorship lens draws attention to the Holy Spirit’s inspiration of the text. This is the fourth and the most important lens. In 2 Peter 1:21 we read, “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Similarly, Paul writes, “For all Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16).
Recognizing that God ultimately wrote Scripture has several significant implications as we read Scripture.
One, we need never doubt that a particular passage is meaningful, instructive, and authoritative for us regardless of what we know about context and author. We don’t need to completely dispense with seeking information about human authorship, but neither are we dependent on it. God in his providence has given us information about certain authors and contexts to enrich our understanding of certain passages. We shouldn’t denigrate grammatical historical research, but we also shouldn’t hang on it. This is why Vern Poythress’ article about the importance of recognizing divine authorship is entitled “Dispensing with Merely Human Authorship.”[2]
Two, recognizing divine authorship allows us to acknowledge multiple meanings in a text beyond what the human author knew or understood. For instance, in Isaiah 7, Ahaz the king of Judah is under attack by the king of Syria and the king of Israel. The Lord sends the prophet Isaiah to give Ahaz a sign. There will be a child born named Immanuel (7:14), and before the child is old enough to discern right and wrong, the threat of the two kings will be gone (7:16). Obviously, this passage is quoted often as referring to the incarnation of Jesus, a connection that is clearly made in Matthew 1:23. The question is, did Isaiah or Ahaz understand that? It seems the immediate fulfillment of this sign was a prophetess (perhaps Isaiah’s wife) having a son, and before he could call his father and mother by name, the threat of the two kings was destroyed (Isa. 8:1-4). Isaiah might not have understood the full meaning of what he was writing and doing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but God certainly did. In that case, there was an immediate fulfillment of God’s promise to be with his people and an ultimate fulfillment. Recognizing divine authorship allows us to marvel at both.
Three, recognizing divine authorship gives a vital unity to Scripture. When each passage is analyzed solely by historical context, authorship, and literary context, passages become hopelessly alienated from one another. In Luke 24, Jesus explodes this atomistic view of Scripture. After encountering two disciples on the road to Emmaus, the resurrected Christ wonders at their biblical ignorance because they didn’t foresee that Jesus had to die and be raised. So, “beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). Seeing that God wrote all of Scripture gives a unity to the Bible as a whole. Only a divine author could write one story through different authors in different contexts over different centuries.
Ultimately, God wrote Scripture, and that is why we can trust the validity of every word of it as well as benefit spiritually. Christ testified to the divine authority of the Old Testament and gave the apostles miraculous power to testify to the authority of their writings. In Christ all things hold together in both his world and his Word.
[1] These four lenses primarily came from lecture notes from Dr. Thomas Keene’s class on Hermeneutics at Reformed Theological Seminary but can be found in Hermeneutics by Ayayo & Virkler, How to Understand and Apply the New Testament by Andy Naselli, and Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics by Graeme Goldsworthy.
[2] Vern S. Poythress, “Dispensing with Merely Human Meaning: Gains and Losses from Focusing on the Human Author, Illustrated by Zephaniah 1:2-3,” Journal of Evangelical Theological Society 57, no. 3 (2014): 481–99.
Mike McGregor
Mike McGregor (MDiv, Reformed Theological Seminary) is Director of College Ministry at First Baptist Church in Durham, N.C. You can follow him on Twitter at @m5mcgregor.
